IT’S NOW ALL YOURS: Oswald (left) shows Zulkifle the book containing their final report during the simple ceremony yesterday. — Chimon Upon
KUCHING: Mental preparedness and physical fitness are two important attributes a person should possess to qualify him or her to join any wildlife monitoring and rescue operations (WiMOR), especially those involving mega dam sites.
Those without both should never even think or dream about joining such missions which are very challenging due to harsh conditions.
Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) deputy general manager cum Protected Areas and Biodiversity Conservation (PABC) head Oswald Braken Tisen said the entire operation was never as simple and easy as some people thought.
“The task is very challenging and not everybody can do it. Persons participating in this
type of project should be fully fit and healthy, which means they must undergo health screening before and after field work.
“Apart from physical fitness, those involved in this kind of task must also be fully prepared mentally to work under harsh conditions at the project areas. For future projects environmental challenges must not be taken lightly,” he said.
He said that this was the important lesson they had learnt throughout the operation carried out at Bakun hydro electric project flooded zone in collaboration with Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd and SFC Sdn Bhd.
“WiMOR is tough and because of that we now in fact can walk tall for what we have achieved throughout out our operation in Bakun,” he said.
Oswald made these points when presenting the final report on wildlife monitoring and rescue operation for Bakun hydro electric project during a simple but significant occasion at Four Points Hotel here yesterday.
Present to receive the report on behalf of Sarawak Hidro Sdn Bhd (SHSB) was its managing director Zulkifle Osman, who described the Bakun WiMOR project as most successful.
He said his past experience in hydro projects, which started way back in 1975, had really helped a lot in handling the Bakun WiMOR activities.
Meanwhile, according to the SFC’s final report, the WiMOR project had been successfully implemented in line with the proposed activities and schedule even though it was slightly delayed due to a delay in impoundment of the dam.
The success story was that the RM2.66 million project has had a positive impact not only on the wildlife affected by Bakun HEP but also on the communities involved, the report said.
It was also said that the animal rescue team rescued and released a total of 1,552 totally protected, protected, trade ban and restricted animals representing 48 mammal species, 15 bird species and 22 reptile species.
Releases were made at four sites connected to the proposed Batu Laga and proposed Hose Mountain National Parks, namely Sg Wat (Murum areas), Sg Kemensan (Balui areas), Bukit Tempuring (Linau areas) and Sg Bersuar (Balui areas).
Apart from animals, SFCSB people also rescued about 33,715 seedlings from being submerged due to impoundment for Bakun HEP where most of the seedlings were said to be from timber species such as Ensurai, Tegelam, Meranti, Rengas, Resak, Engkabang, Binatoh, Luis and Urat Mata.